Showtime is speaking out in response to misinformation that is in the media about a character Sacha Baron Cohen is playing on his new series Who Is America?

In a lengthy statement issued Monday, the pay cabler denied that Cohen's character Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., seen in the premiere episode of the series interviewing Sen.

The former Alaska governor says she was invited to contribute to a "Showtime historical documentary" and was interviewed by someone heavily disguised as "a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all".

Baron Cohen went undercover using prosthetics and make-up as different characters while interviewing a series of American political figures such as Sarah Palin, Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheney.

Palin had previously described Baron Cohen's stunt on Facebook as "evil, exploitive, and sick", blasting him for his "disrespect". "The disrespect of our United States military and middle-class Americans via Cohen's foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse ..."

Ruddick was Cohen's first new character presented Sunday night, the conspiracy-loving, scooter-riding founder of Truthbrary.org (like library, except not).

The seven-episode show marked Baron Cohen's first television project in a decade after he launched his comedy career as a white English rapper Ali G., whose interviewees included Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich.